Professor Paul Boyle CBE FBA FRSE

Chair

~~SSAC Chair

Professor Paul Boyle CBE is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. Previously, Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK’s largest funding agency for social science research; the International Champion of Research Councils UK, with responsibility for international strategy on behalf of all seven UK research councils; and President of Science Europe, representing over 50 European funding agencies. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Royal Geographical Society of Scotland.

Before joining the ESRC, he was Head of the School of Geography and Geosciences at the University of St Andrews, publishing widely in Demography and Epidemiology. He was Director of the ESRC Longitudinal Studies Centre Scotland, Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Population Change, and Co-Investigator on the Wellcome Trust Scottish Health Informatics Programme. He was Founding Director of the Social Dimensions of Health Institute, a joint collaboration between the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews.

Professor Boyle is Chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, which is Scotland’s highest level science advisory body; a Board Member of Universities UK, who provide leadership and support to executive heads of 133 UK University institutions; a Council Member and Trustee of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, which has over 500 member institutions in 37 Commonwealth countries; an ‘impact champion’ for the United Nations HeForShe global solidarity movement for gender equality; Chair of the Q-Step Strategy Board, promoting quantitative social science training in the UK; on the Advisory Board of the UPP Foundation; and the Advisory Board of Sporting Equals, promoting ethnic diversity in sport and physical activity.